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Stats

September 30, 2011

This post will for the most part consist of photos.
Yesterday, I was in Schalke Arena, normally I am standing in "Nordkurve", this time I thought it could be pretty good to sit (then I was able / allowed to take the good camera along with me..), a nice opportunity to make some good photos and to be closer to the action. And of course, I could observe the Portuguese referee Manuel Jorge de Sousa.

One of both must have had a nice joke; Soares and Miranda often laughed..

Nordkurve atmosphere

The match is under way

5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ..

KICK-OFF!

WIN!

Match statistics (c) UEFA FR

Apart from the fact that Schalke played a good 2nd half, they had many, too many mistakes in their play. The allowed Haifa too many goal attempts which resulted in one goal.

Manuel de Sousa is a typical Portuguese referee: he reminds me on Olegário Benquerenca concerning his outward apperance and gestures, the style is more like Proenca's.

Two and a half years ago, I saw Proenca in Arena when we drew with APOEL Nicosia. At this time, he was not on top level of Europe but showed a very good perfomance. We all know what a few months later came...I am quite sure that this story could repeat itself as I am convinced that de Sousa will be promoted as soon as possible and could follow the steps of Benquerenca and Proenca. Latters are not the youngest anymore, Soares Dias and de Sousa seem to be Portugal's future with regard to their refereeing.

The only mistake of the evening was made by Ramalho who wrongly disallowed a goal scored by Schalke. It was one metre no offside.

It has to be mentioned that UEFA actually appointed José Cardinal as AR1, he appeared as such at UEFA.com on Wednesday. He was however replaced by Bertino Miranda.

September 23, 2011

The referee comitee of DFB has announced that two referees will make their FIFA bow at the start of the next year. The comitee chaired by former UEFA Euro 2008 referee and UEFA referee comitee member Herbert Fandel declared that Marco Fritz (33) and Felix Zwayer will be promoted in 2012. They will replace Babak Rafati (41) and Peter Sippel (41) who both did not receive that many international appointments in the past or had a weak last season (Rafati).

According to Fandel, the main reason for these promotions/demotions is the fact that Germany will lose 7 FIFA referees in 2013/2014 as many referees were born in 1968 or 1969. The referee comitee has therefore decided to counteract this foreseeable development by choosing young referees who do not merely have all the attributes to act on the highest stages but also to bring along a long-dated prospect.

"Now, we have to set the courses so that our refereeing will be represented on the top stages in the future as well. Only if our most talented referees precociously assume responsibility, we will be able to ensure our presence and the extra-ordinary good reputation our referees may savour in the world.", (Fandel said at dfb.de)

Marco Fritz and Felix Zwayer had yet met themselves in their career paths: they were both promoted to the pool of Bundesliga referees in 2009. In the following, there are some small biographies to introduce Germany's new FIFA referees:

Marco Fritz

DoB: 03 October 1977 (age when being promoted: 34)

Origin: Korb (71404, Baden-Württemberg, SW of GER)

Occupation: Bank Business Management Assistant

Height: 1,85 m; Weight: 74 kg

Leisure time activities: Sports, Music

DFB Referee since: 2006

2nd Bundesliga since: 2008

2nd Bundesliga matches: 25 (100 YC, 3 RC)

Bundesliga since: 2009

Bundesliga matches: 23 (75 YC, 6 RC)

FIFA Referee since: 2012Regular DFB ARs: Volker Wezel, René Kunsleben

(data based on 23/09/2011)

Description: In general, Marco Fritz can be described as calm referee who is however very strict in situations when it is needed to be so. He does not refuse to show cards if necessary, he escaped bigger mistakes in the past. He was heavily pushed during the last years, after only two years as official DFB referee, he joined the 2nd Bundesliga pool of referees and mostly assisted Michael Kempter in Bundesliga as AR2. After only eight matches in 2nd Bundesliga (in 2008), he was directly taken on the Bundesliga list which was of course a surprise, but finally, it was nothing else than deserved.

Marco Fritz is mostly assisted in Bundesliga by former Euro AR Volker Wezel and René Kunsleben.

Description: Felix Zwayer had not been an unknown name in Germany, before he joined the DFB top level. He made a big contribution to the German match-fixing scandal's solving as he immediately reported some strange odds he observed in the contact with Robert Hoyzer who came from Berlin as well.

Zwayer is member of a Bundesliga club: Hertha BSC Berlin. After he had been the regular assistant referee of FIFA referee Manuel Gräfe in 2007 and 2008, he was promoted to become a new Bundesliga referee. His first seasons were very impressive, he always showed a very lenient style and proved himself to be a referee who does not like showing too many cards. Nevertheless, one has to state that this led to some unlucky decisions as he refused three times to issue obvious red cards for professional fouls.

In my opinion, these promotions were the direct opposite of surprises. Fritz and Zwayer are - by far - the biggest talents we have at the moment in Germany, at least among the (former-)non-FIFA-referees. I am quite sure that Christian Dingert and Markus Wingenbach will follow in the next years.

I know that there are a couple of other promotions (like in Colombia, Belgium or of course in Switzerland). As soon as you get to know other ones, you may post it underneath this thread in the future.

September 19, 2011

Markus Merk's general practitioner Dr. Jochen Drees was appointed to referee Saturday's Bundesliga encounter between 1.FC Nürnberg and Werder Bremen. It is the old hat that history in football always repeats itself: three years ago, he oversaw Nürnberg's home fixture against Wolfsburg which ended in a real pluvial battle...after 20 minutes, Drees abandoned the match after having waited two hours, upon consultation with DFB officials this was the only reasonable decision.

Anyway, Saturday, he met Nürnberg again and was some kind of unlucky in two different things:

After 35 minutes, there was again heavy rain but this time, the play could go on after a 40-minute half-time break. However, the key decision was in the 16th minute of the game when the following situation happened (1:00):

You have probably noticed the reaction of Nürnberg's coach Hecking who was upset by the decision made by Drees; he would have more likely seen an allowed goal. Only considering the foul itself, there may be no doubt that it is a straight red card, as long as the referee whistles it.

To my mind, that is no mistake, it is rather a difficult but unlucky decision made by the DFB referee.

The German TV-commentator said: " It would have preferred the goal and perhaps cautioning Wiese with a yellow card, then nobody can complain "...it that really so easy?

Of course, one has to look the rule up in FIFA's Laws of the Game (page 68):

"The referee may play advantage whenever an infringement or offence occurs.

The referee should consider the following circumstances in deciding whether to apply the advantage or stop play:

- the severity of the offence: if the infringement warrants an expulsion, the referee must stop play and send off the player unless there is a subsequent opportunity to score a goal- the position where the offence was committed: the closer to the opponent's goal, the more effective it can be- the chances of an immediate, promising attack- the atmosphere of the match

The decision to penalize the original offence must be taken within a few seconds.

If the offence warrants a caution, it must be issued at the next stoppage. However, unless there is a clear advantage, it is recommended that the referee stops play and cautions the player immediately. If the caution is NOT issued at the next stoppage, it cannot be shown later."

In my opinion, there are two opportunities: that what Drees did, i.e. issueing the expulsion immediately, but in this case he did not pay attention to the "subsequent opportunity to score a goal", which was obviously available. The other opportunity: advantage, but what comes then? It says "if the offence warrants a CAUTION, it must be issued at the next stoppage". But what about an EXPULSION?

Dr. Jochen Drees issueing a red card against Tim Wiese

The red card was awarded for the hindrance of the clear scoring opportunity, as this scoring opportunity is recovered, is there no need for a red card anymore? Or perhaps for an expulsion either? The rule does not reveal any information on how to issue an expulsion after an advantage...

My personal opinion is split...on the one hand, I think one should enable one's common sense, that means that I can follow the TV commentator's statement, but on the other hand, I think that there must be a red card even after an applied advantage because it was Wiese's only intention or aim to hinder the attacker to score, this intention is to my mind not changed by a scored goal after an advantage...very difficult, but at least it shows that Drees is not completely wrong and as the post's title says, he is more or less forsaken by the rule.

What do you think?

One thing is sure, when DFB is going to appoint Drees for a Nürnberg match next time, everyone should take two things along: an umbrella and a lot of time.

It is very interesting to guess how the referees are classified by UEFA with regard to the respectively appointed referee observer. Kovarik, Todorov, Mazic, Rasmussen, van Boekel and Hategan seem to be under special observation this matchday..well, it is no secret that Hategan, Kovarik and Todorov are great talents.

Following these two links you may find my own appointments for CL / EL MD2 (independent from real appointments):

September 9, 2011

Just to inform you: Carlos and I are writing a preview for UCL Matchday 1 containing all the matches, teams, players, match background information and of course, the appointed match officials.

Latter coerces us into publishing it soonest on the next Monday, I think you will be able to read and/or download the pdf-document on Monday, 12th September, 16:00 UTC as far as the referee appointments are published by UEFA.

September 5, 2011

When I accessed the UEFA referee appointments for September's Euro 2012 qualifier matches, I was slightly wondering whether they had chosen the right man for the very important match between Scotland and Czech Republic taking place in Glasgow's louche Hampden Park. As one could observe a good perfomance by the Dutchman (coming from Gouda) in the UEFA Champions-League Play-Off encounter between Arsenal and Udinese, the initial surprise wore off a bit. However, what this referee showed throughout the whole match - but in particular in the last five minutes - can be described as a nightmare. A Scottish nightmare with regard to the close situation in Group I it would have been if Scotland could have won the match. The talk is of Kevin Blom.

After a solid first half with no bigger problems and a quite good approach, he noticeably lost track about everything occurring in the field. Many bookings were not reasonable at all, he should have sent Rezek off who commited two hard fouls in one situation (the 2nd foul should have been red); one time he made a very polemical and populist gesture after having booked a Czech for complaining. However, these are only some weaknesses; when watching the match, I was not content but not totally disappointed by Blom.
But well...a match has 90 minutes..let us consider the official last minute in a nutshell:

- 90': Rezek (CZE) is entering the box and commits an obvious dive. Blom awards a penalty for CZE which is well converted by Kadlec (CZE).

- 90+3': Berra (SCO) is entering the box from a sharp angle and is receiving a soft touch at his tight from a Czech, he loses balance and falls. Blom cautions Berra (SCO) for diving. A terrible decision, even though it is a soft touch, it is a clear penalty.

No wonder that some Scots are more than just angry with Blom. Their manager Craig Levein said after the match that he "didn't confront blunder ref Kevin Blom because [he] would have exploded with rage" (taken from dailyrecord.co.uk).

Honestly, this perfomance was one of the weakest I saw in 2011. Honestly, the Scots reserve the right of attacking Dutchman Kevin Blom. But honestly, it is too easy to blame everything on Blom as well.

The Dutchman who was promoted to Elite group of UEFA referees prior to the last season should have been capable of keeping such an important match under control and what is even more important, he should have been able to take the correct decisions. At least on paper...

UEFA did not feel compelled to issue a statement on this topic and they know why. Naturally, UEFA did not coerce Blom into making these mistakes, but one really has to criticize the Union for their - to my mind - too strong "pushing" of referees like Blom. There have been previous cases, one of these was Bebek. High expectations, good appointments, noticeably decreasing perfomances, demotions...

In fact, a more experienced referee like Benquerenca or Rizzoli would have been more adequate for this match. UEFA overestimated Blom, UEFA underestimated the match importance and difficulty.

Of course, one can say that dives themselves have to be avoided and stopped; there are suggestions to ban dives from professional football (e.g. showing straight red cards). But at least we can suspect that this ideal will never be reached.

Roughly speaking: Blom is the idiot, he is the "fall guy". But the real idiots have to be searched in Nyon! I do not dislike Kevin Blom, I criticize his perfomance but I criticize UEFA.

Update: the following video shows both penalty situations, it shows that Blom fell for the - to my mind - pretty obvious dive (at least for AR1 Lobbert!) and the second situation which is still a controversy. In my opinion, we can say that there is a touch. The question is: what does this touch mean in this pace? To my mind, it means a foul, but perhaps I am wrong as well. But never a dive...

September 3, 2011

Following an article in the NZ Herald, World Cup referee Michael Hester from New Zealand has finished his career as football referee.

Hester joined FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa where he officiated a Group B encounter between Greece and Korea Republic (0-2) along with Jan-Hendrik Hintz (NZL) and Tevita Makasini (TAH). [His perfomance in this World Cup match was rated by me in a detailed evaluation with the final mark 6,7.]

Furthermore, he was appointed for FIFA Under 17 World Cup in Nigeria in 2009 and FIFA Confed Cup 2009 where he got his most intense match of his career, as he said, when he refereed the duel between the United States and Egypt.
Moreover, he joined a FIFA Club WC (2010) and the Olympic Games in China PR in 2008.

"Refereeing is a hobby I've taken from council grounds to World Cup stadiums and it's been an amazing adventure", Hester said in the newspaper article.

The former naval officer said as well that "some other challenges" came up which means that refereeing "is not longer sustainable".

This probably means that Peter O'Leary will one of those referees who are more or less seeded to blow the whistle in Brazil in 2014. Norbert Hauata could be a safe bet for the 4th Official post.

Two appointments may indicate who has won the close duels:
Alberto Undiano is not accompanied by Juan Yuste Jiménez who will assist Carlos Velasco. This could mean that UEFA prefers Velasco along with Alonso Fernández and Yuste Jiménez.

Moreover, this is the first time that Felix Brych is not assisted by his regular assistant referees Thorsten Schiffner and Mark Borsch but by the two World Cup assistant referees. Again, perhaps UEFA prefers this trio and this is some kind of trial for those teams.